Research On Consumer Public Interest Litigation System From The Perspective Of Personal Information Protection

In recent years,with the deep integration of the Internet,big data,artificial intelligence and the real economy,the digital economy has flourished.The digitalization of consumption patterns has brought great convenience to consumers,and consumers have become participants,beneficiaries and contributors to the digital economy.Digital technologies such as data collection and analysis have increasingly become a common "weapon" for major Internet platforms and operators to grab profits.Under this circumstance,there have been repeated incidents of stakeholders infringing on the rights and interests of personal information in the consumer field,which are directly manifested in the phenomenon of "big data killing familiarity" and the illegal collection,abuse and leakage of personal information,and the personal information rights and interests of many consumers have been arbitrarily taken,resulting in a serious imbalance of interests between consumers and operators in the digital economy.However,traditional tort liability has not been satisfied with the judicial application in the field of personal information protection,and consumer civil private interest litigation methods have been unable to effectively deal with large-scale personal information infringement,and more and more scholars have also explored the use of consumer public interest litigation system to solve the problem of large-scale infringement of consumers’ personal information,in order to provide a more effective judicial remedy path for personal information protection.This paper discusses the remedy path of consumer public interest litigation from the perspective of personal information protection,mainly from four aspects:theoretical foundation,system analysis,extraterritorial reference and system improvement.The first part explains the theoretical basis for applying consumer public interest litigation to protect personal information in the context of the digital economy.It mainly involves the following three aspects: First,the basic connotation of personal information and the existing protection paths are preliminarily analyzed,so as to reach a common understanding,that is,personal information is special,and personal information protection is extremely important.Secondly,the compatibility between personal information protection and consumer public interest litigation is analyzed.The compatibility between the two is mainly reflected in the fact that personal information has social welfare attributes,and consumer public interest litigation has the function of safeguarding social public interests in the consumer field;At the same time,Article 70 of the PIPL provides an institutional interface for public interest litigation on personal information protection consumption.Finally,based on the connection between personal information protection and consumer public interest litigation system,and through the comparative analysis of the existing basic paths of personal information protection,the unique value of consumer public interest litigation system in personal information protection is concluded.In the second part,this research aims to deeply analyze the personal information protection consumer public interest litigation system and analyze its practical dilemmas,in order to explore the limitations and shortcomings of the system.The research shows that the existing consumer public interest litigation system is difficult to adapt to the rapid development of China’s digital economy,and it is difficult to meet the objective needs of consumers in protecting their rights and interests in personal information,and faces many challenges and restrictions.According to the relevant provisions of the current laws and regulations of China’s consumer public interest litigation system for personal information protection,the consumer public interest litigation system lacks guiding norms in the scope of cases,and does not clarify the specific types of personal information for filing consumer public interest litigation,resulting in certain restrictions on the effect of personal information protection.In terms of the order of prosecution,the Personal Information Protection Law and the Consumer Rights Protection Law are inconsistent between the people’s procuratorates and consumer organizations prescribed by law,which may cause confusion in litigation activities in judicial practice.In terms of litigation,the lack of the right to claim damages makes it impossible for consumer organizations under the law to effectively play a preventive and deterrent function through public interest litigation.In terms of the burden of proof,it is difficult to fulfill the burden of proof of qualified prosecution entities,resulting in the enthusiasm of qualified prosecution entities to apply the consumer public interest litigation system to protect personal information.In terms of the rules for the withdrawal of rules,there are problems of unclear rules and procedures,which makes it difficult to exert the social governance effect of consumer public interest litigation.The third part introduces the litigation and relief models of the United States and the European Union in the field of consumer personal information protection,and summarizes their institutional experience and reference value.The US consumer personal information protection class action model has a mature damage compensation system,which can provide experience for China in improving the consumer public interest litigation system and introducing punitive damages.However,the EU’s consumer personal information protection collective relief mechanism has a relatively complete litigation review system,which provides certain extraterritorial experience for the division of the scope of cases and the improvement of the proof mechanism of China’s consumer public interest litigation system,and then provides comparative law support for improving China’s personal information protection consumer public interest litigation system.In the fourth part,through the analysis of the existing system and the reference of relevant experience outside the territory,this paper puts forward suggestions for improving the consumer public interest litigation system under the perspective of personal information protection in China,namely: clarifying the scope of consumer public interest litigation,and setting the types of cases such as substantial damage and substantial risk as the scope of the consumer public interest litigation system.Clarify the scope and order of prosecution of consumer public interest litigation,and stipulate that consumer organizations are the first in line of prosecution subjects,and people’s procuratorates are the supplementary prosecution subjects.Improve the definition of damage to personal information rights and interests,and introduce a punitive damages system.Complete the system of responsibility for litigation proof,lower the standard of proof for prima facie evidence,and establish support mechanisms for investigation and collection of evidence.Optimize the rules for the transfer and withdrawal of personal information protection consumer public interest litigation litigation,improve the rules and procedures for mediation during litigation,and strictly implement the review standards for withdrawal of litigation.